


Acclimatisation

by DeviantXen



Series: Acclimatisation [1]
Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Charlie is a Precious Baby, Cutesy, Fluff, M/M, Matteusz is the bestest boyfriend, Ram is kinda Mean, Sassy Quill, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-25 23:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9850685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeviantXen/pseuds/DeviantXen
Summary: Charlie Smith is yet to experience the viruses that inhabit Earth. The problem with being a Rhodian is that he catches everything at once, in succession, and well Charlie has never been sick before so has no idea what to expect. But at least he has Matteusz to comfort him through it, so it can't all be that bad...right?





	

 

  **Part One**

 

It was a typical hellish Monday in Coal Hill Academy, and the gifted (a term that was used quite loosely according to Quill) class of year twelve were once again trapped within the condescending presence of their arrogant and alien physics teacher. As usual, sketched across the blackboard in sharp white chalk marks (that the somewhat sadistic Quill had purposely squeaked when writing, just to watch her students flinch in auditory pain), was a so called “advanced” equation that really, should have only been solvable by one who had a master’s degree in Astro-physics, or whose name was Tanya Adeola.  
  
“This is impossible,” Ram Singh grumbled, slapping his pen across his graffiti sullied desk and slouching further into the rather uncomfortable plastic seat that was rudimentary school furnishing.  
  
“Given up already Ram? Pity, I quite liked the smell of your brain cooking inside your skull,” Andra’ath Quill smirked from behind the mug of coffee she was drinking. If there was one thing she actually _liked_ about Earth; was the substance known as caffeine. It was one if the few things that motivated her to actually turn up to class every day, that and her fondness for power and watching disgusting human adolescents squirm in their seats as they slowly realised that the only future they had to look forward to; was one that involved standing behind a counter and asking other disgusting humans if they wanted fries with their food purchase. “Just so you know _children_ , whatever you don’t finish in class today, will be assigned as homework.”  
  
A collective groan filled the entire room before quickly being silenced by a death glare, a death glare that immediately afterwards returned to the iPad on the desk to continue reading ‘Catching Fire’, the second book in a series that Quill herself had to admit she was quite fond of. There was nothing more enjoyable than the thought of children being forced to kill each other for the entertainment of others. Pity it was just a work of fiction, this would have made the humans so much more interesting.  
  
Charlie Smith sighed at the thought of more impossible homework adding to his quickly growing stack and subconsciously rubbed his tickling nose for the umpteenth time. For some strange reason the appendage had been playing up over the last hour, feeling sort of congested like something undistinguishable was stuck up there making breathing just that little bit more difficult. It had barely been noticeable at first, especially as he had been too busy doodling in his notebook, a habit he had picked up since living here on Earth. He had always liked drawing, but it was a hobby that he didn’t have much time for back on Rhodia, but here in London, it had only been a month and already Charlie had filled up two notebooks with sketches of the creatures that used to inhabit his home planet. He had yet to even show Matteusz these drawings, simply because the memories attached to them were still too fresh and too painful in his mind to share with anyone else. But he wanted to, one day. There was nothing more he wanted to do than to sit and snuggle up with Matteusz and show him all his drawings and tell him about the wondrous animals from the fluffy to the scary, because he sought to share everything with this boy, now and forever.  
  
A sudden sneezing fit snapped Charlie out of his daydream and back into the horror of a lazily run physics lesson. Something dribbled down the lower half of his face, but before he had chance to wipe whatever it was away with his sleeve, a tissue was thrust in front of him, one that was decorated with a border of soft blue flowers and smelt nicely fragrant.   
  
“Here,” April MacLean smiled.  
  
“Thanks,” Charlie gave her an appreciative nod before taking the item and wiping himself clean, only to then frown at the strange, clear substance that dampened it. He went to hand the crumpled tissue back but was stopped midway as April shook her head and chuckled.  
  
“No you keep it.”  
  
“Thanks again.”  
  
“You feeling alright Charlie? I haven’t seen you sneeze like that before,” April asked, noticing the slight redness to the alien prince’s nose and how much discomfort that now seemed to be causing him.  
  
“Is it normal for human noses to feel, well…funny? Like something inside is hindering its use?”  
  
“Charlie, I think you might be catching a cold,” April replied, reaching over to pat her friend on the shoulder. This was probably a completely new experience for him, the poor guy.    
  
“How does one catch the temperature?” Charlie frowned. He didn’t feel cold. If anything, it was a little toasty in here.  
  
“No, I mean it’s a bug,” she corrected herself. The puzzlement in the prince’s expression only grew. She had temporarily forgotten that sometimes the Rhodian took words quite literally, not really understanding English proverbs and idioms.  
  
“What April is trying to say Posho, is that it seems like you’re getting sick,” Ram piped in, looking quite amused by the idea. Although Ram did actually like Charlie, his inner jock made it impossible for him to _not_ tease the guy.  
  
               Snobby Accent: _Check_.  
  
               Dorky Fashion Sense: _Check_.  
  
               Constant Dumb Look on Face: _Check_.  
  
The colour from Charlie’s face drained and he swallowed hard, clutching the soiled tissue tighter within his hands. It was a reaction that neither teenager was expecting and had both Ram and April glancing at each other with matching shrugs.  
  
“It’s just a cold mate, getting a little sick is nothing to worry about,” Ram added, feeling a tad guilty for whatever it was he said that must have offended the guy. “Right Tanya?”  
  
Tanya turned her head to look at the trio behind her, glad to now be included in the conversation she had been eavesdropping on. It had been quite annoying listening to the Rhodian Prince sniffling behind her while she tried to work her brain into gear.  
  
“Ram’s right Charlie, it’s nothing.” Even if it was something, Tanya had a compulsive habit of taking Rams side despite the situation. She couldn’t help it.  
  
“No you don’t understand,” Charlie uttered, raking his fingers through his blonde hair before ultimately burying his face behind his palms.  
  
The lunch bell rung, signalling the end of class, which came to a relief to the Rhodian who was now in a hurry to escape. It was unlike him to shove his belongings into his backpack in one go, to not bother to close his notepad or even put his pencils back in the case, he didn’t even make an attempt to pick up his pencil sharpener from the floor after knocking it off his desk. Instead he just grabbed his bag and left, zigzagging his way past the rest of his classmates that were still only just processing the sound of the bell.  
  
“Charlie?” Matteusz called, watching his boyfriend zip past him without a response. It took all of about two seconds for him to start worrying.  
  
“You four, over here, we need to talk.” Quill sharply gestured to the four teenagers that collectively caused forty-percent of all the grief in her life (the other sixty belonged to the damned Rhodian) and waited for the rest of the human cattle to filter out the room, before sighing. “I knew this was going to happen eventually.”  
  
“Knew what was going to happen?” Tanya raised an eyebrow.  
  
“The idiotic Prince getting ill, what else?” She shook her head and groaned, internally face-palming at how bloody stupid these teenagers were. As if she cared about anything else these ludicrous adolescents had been babbling about.  
  
“Is that really a problem?” April questioned, looking towards Matteusz who looked absolutely dejected from being ignored by his beloved.  
  
“Well it’s going to be a right headache for me, both figuratively and quite literally,” Quill said, tone dripping with violent cynicism. She had been dreading Charlie’s physiological acclimatising since they were dropped off on this planet, because it wasn’t just him that was going to be suffering – oh no – that damn Arn was going to make sure of that.  
  
“What do you mean?” Matteusz frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
“As you can probably imagine, Rhodian physiology is quite different from a humans. While you feeble humans get sick frequently from birth to death, Rhodian’s only do so once when they encounter a new living environment, which in this case would be an entirely new planet.” Quill explained.  
  
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Ram grinned, half leaning against a desk.  
  
“The only problem Ram, is that they catch everything at once, in succession. Every common illness one after the other, progressively getting worse and worse until eventually it’s over. I’ve seen Rhodian’s die during their acclimatisation, especially in Quill territory, since we had some nasty viruses. I mean I doubt human illness can compare, but you never know with Charles, he’s not exactly the toughest Rhodian I have come across in my time.” Quill said, pre-emptively massaging her temples. “And worse than that, the whole time the little prince will be whining about whatever it is you humans call sick, I’m going to be dealing with the pain of feeling my skull be cracked in two. Which reminds me, considering I’m going to be indisposed, I’m going to be leaving caring for his majesty to the four of you, especially you Matteusz, you may as well make yourself useful considering you take up valuable Quill space at home. Now get out the lot of you.” Quill shooed them away with vehement, wanting to spend lunch alone so she could play this cute virtual cat came on her iPad that she would never admit to anyone that she enjoyed.  
  
Charlie was sat alone in the cafeteria on the group’s usual table, having not bothered to buy himself any lunch, not really feeling up to the notion of eating. Instead, he fiddled with his favourite yellow pencil (there was nothing special about it, he was just fond of the colour, it reminded him of happiness for some reason), spinning it across the questionable hygiene of the table’s surface. Fiddling was another habit he had allowed himself to explore since living on Earth, it was a discourteous mannerism and he knew that, but he didn’t have an appearance of cultured perfection to keep up anymore. He was so caught up in concentration watching the blur of yellow spin fast enough to remind him of that gorgeous glowing orb that lit up Earth’s sky, that he didn’t notice the presence of his friends until they all plonked themselves on the table with him.  
  
“You left this,” Matteusz said, scooting up besides his boyfriend and placing the abandoned pencil sharpener on the table within his eyesight. He had snatched up the thing before being herded out of the classroom. Knowing how much Charlie liked to draw, it would have been a shame for him to lose it and be stuck with a bunch of blunt pencils.  
  
“Thanks…” Charlie picked the item up and put it away safely, keeping his gaze low. “I’m sorry you guys for running out like that, it was very rude of me.”  
  
“Quill told us what’s up,” Ram spoke from opposite him, digging in his packed lunch and pulling out a container filled with cold pizza from the takeout he had ordered the night before.  
  
“Yeah, it kinda sucks, I mean I hate getting ill with just one thing, nevermind catching everything one after the other,” Tanya added, pinching one of Ram’s pizza slices, simply because she could and knew she could get away with it. He made a loud noise of complaint but made no attempt to retrieve the lost item, instead he put all his remaining effort into protecting what was left by curling his arms around the plastic box and shielding it with his body.  
  
“You must have gone through this before back on your home planet?” April wondered, delicately eating her tomato and lettuce sandwich with the crusts cut off.  
  
“I was too young to remember by acclimatisation on Rhodia, the first time happens before we reach the age of one.” Charlie answered.  
  
“But you must have like moved around? I mean here on Earth from continent to continent we have different viruses and infections that only affect certain areas,” Tanya asked, picking off the mushrooms and eating them separately.  
  
“I never left the capital city, my parents always thought to keep my close by because I was too valuable to be left unprotected while we were at war with the Quill,” Charlie said, his voice quiet. He never knew peace on his planet, not fully. The Rhodian and Quill were at each other’s throats long before he was even born.  
  
“So you don’t know what it’s like to be ill?” Matteusz inquired, sliding a hand over to one of Charlie’s that was pressed flat against the table. Charlie responded immediately and intertwined their fingers, feeling just that little bit better.  
  
“No, not really,” he shook his head and sniffled. “Dare I ask what I am in for?”    
  
“Well it looks like you’re already getting a cold,” April said, chewing on the plastic spoon that she had brought with her to eat her yoghurt.  
  
“And what does a cold entail?”  
  
“It feels like someone has stuffed cotton wool up your nose and like you keep sneezing and your nose keeps like dribbling. It’s not really that bad, humans get them all the time. You’ll just need to carry lots of tissues and you’ll probably be fine,” Tanya clarified, biting into an apple, trying to not let the juice dribble down her mouth.  
  
“I think I can handle that...what else?” He glanced at Matteusz who just gave him his usual supportive smile while simultaneously eating a packet of crisps one handed. He didn’t know what he did right to deserve such a wonderful partner, especially considering how he knew that deep down in his heart he was such an awful person.  
  
“Sore throat, feels like something is scratching up your throat form the inside, usually made worse when you swallow or speak,” April acted claw-like gestures to go with her explanation. “Also you’ll probably get a cough too.”  
  
“Headache’s too, I get them all the time when I stare at a screen for too long,” Tanya interrupted. “They drive me crazy, it’s like someone is just hammering at your skull and everything just feels so much more intense and horrible.”  
  
“I see…” Charlie muttered, tightening his grip on Matteusz’s hand.  
  
“Don’t forget a fever, the feeling of being boiled alive in your own skin.” Ram said dramatically, trying to hide a smirk. The opportunity to be just a little cruel was within his grasp once again and he never could just watched and wave it goodbye. He just _had_ to take part. “Also vomiting. Think about all the food you’ve eaten all mushed up and covered with icky greeny-yellow burning acid, think about it coming back up your throat and being forced out for your mouth.”  
  
“That’s disgusting,” Charlie gasped, horrified.  
  
“If you think that’s disgusting mate, just wait until you hear about diarrhoea,” Ram sneered. He flinched when April smacked him on the shoulder with a scolding look.  
  
“I think that’s enough,” Matteusz interjected, rubbing his thumb gently across Charlie’s knuckles in an attempt to soothe him. It didn’t help, so instead he took it a step further and gently grasped hold of the Rhodian’s jaw to turn him to face him directly. “Don’t worry ‘bout it Charlie, they’re just teasing is all. How about I take you shopping after school hmm? We can stock up on things I think we might need to get you through this.”  
  
"Sounds like a plan…I guess,” Charlie gave him a small smile. He supposed if his delightful Polish boyfriend stayed by his side the whole time, he could cope. Matteusz kissed him on the forehead and then on the nose. Charlie always liked it when he did that.  
  
“Get a room guys,” Ram rolled his eyes.

Matteusz waited for Charlie outside the school gates, having had English Literature last period compared to Charlie’s History which were at completely opposite ends of the school grounds. He waved and smiled brightly when he saw the smaller blonde approaching him, loving the positive effect he had on the teen’s expression. He had never been able to make someone smile just by looking at them before Charlie.  
  
“I told Quill we’d be late back, she gave me some money for some supplies,” Charlie said, digging his hand into his pocket to pull out a bunch of banknotes to give to Matteusz who clearly knew more about human currency than he did. Matteusz counted the amount in his hand, his eyes widening.  
  
“There is over three-hundred pounds here Charlie.” His weekly allowance back when he lived at home was just a meagre fifteen a week which really didn’t last him further than about Wednesday.  
  
“Is that enough?” The blonde asked, skeptically.  
  
“More than enough,” Matteusz laughed, he really did find the Rhodian’s lack of common knowledge ever so endearing. He was literally one-of-a-kind in so many different ways. “Let’s go.” He offered out his hand and Charlie, without hesitation, took it and allowed himself to be lead.  
  
Charlie hadn’t been to a supermarket before and was generally quite impressed by the size of it. Humans seemed to really enjoy shopping. Matteusz chaperoned him from isle to isle, picking up item after item and popping it into the basket, while simultaneously telling Charlie what each item was there for to placate his growing anxiety.  
  
“Right so we got tissues, lots of them; the good kind, because rough tissues can dry out your nose and make it sore and that is not nice, but just in case that happens we have got some moisturizer. We also have some chicken soup, I like chicken soup, it’s good for warmth and for settling stomachs,” Matteusz said. It was human common courtesy to make chicken soup for someone close to you who was sick, he didn’t think he needed to break that tradition just because Charlie wasn’t human when by this point he may have well have been. “Also we have cough medicine for if/when your throat gets sore, painkillers, I picked up the strongest brand…I don’t know much ‘bout Rhodians but if I were to get ill like this, I would want the best, some VapoRub to help sleep with a stuffy nose and some Imodium.”  
  
“Which is used for?” Charlie cocked his head to the side.  
  
“That one is better left unsaid until it comes to it,” he replied. Next he gestured to the multitude of frozen pots that took up the most space within his basket. “These are pots of ice-cream.”  
  
“Why so many?” Charlie wondered, helping Matteusz unload them onto the conveyor belt while trying to understand the jumble of words that titled each pot. It looked like English, but didn’t read like English, or at least they were words that he hadn’t heard of before.  
  
“Because I don’t know which you like. Besides, you can never have too much ice-cream,” Matteusz smiled. It may or may not have been one of his favourite daydreams; to imagine himself with Charlie, sat snuggled up on a couch (or bed) with a warm, heavy blanket, sharing a couple of tubs of ice-cream while watching a bunch of movies. It was a cliché fantasy and knew that, but it didn’t stop him from wanting it.  
  
“I guess we’ll have to try them all then?” Charlie beamed. He then read the next label. “Also what does Karamel Sutra mean?”  
  
Matteusz choked on air. He was so innocent. So, so, _so,_ innocent. “It’tis err…a play on words – like a joke, words that sound like other words but have a totally different meaning, which is often funny.”  
  
“Oh…I still don’t get this one.” he said. “I guess the first part if a misspelling of caramel, am I correct? Which is what, the flavour of the ice-cream?”  
  
“Yes,” Matteusz nodded. “The whole word together sounds like ‘Kama Sutra’, which is a... _special_ kind of book.”  
  
“How is it special?” Charlie’s eye lit up with curiousity.  
  
"I’ll tell you later,” the Pol quickly answered. That was a conversation he’d rather have when they were both alone and preferably in a bedroom.  
  
“Alright,” Charlie dropped the subject to pick up the final item left in the basket. “The Vampire Diaries seasons 1-7? How will that help?”  
  
“Well…” Matteusz scratched the back of his neck a little sheepishly. “I just thought considering Quill gave us so much money…we could watch it together. I know you like it because—”  
  
“Everyone is very attractive,” they both finished in unison.  
              

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda binged watched Class again so I decided to give the idea I had a little wave with happy clappy stuff. It's not the greatest I know. I have four more parts planned, each with Charlie experiencing a different illness, so if anyone in this fandom wants to help me haha. 
> 
> Please I am desperate for someone to fangirl with.
> 
> Halp.
> 
> Also I guess comments are super appreciated xD This fandom does not get enough love considering how damn adorable Charlie and Matteusz are. Yaoi bait here people!
> 
> I am trash.


End file.
